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"News Watch" (a column from the Christian Research Journal,
Winter/Spring 1990, page 5) by William M. Alnor.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is
Elliot Miller.
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*In the Soviet Union, a Growing Psychic-Occult Revival*
A full-blown New Age occult revival is taking place in the
Soviet Union. And, unlike the current Soviet practice of simply
_allowing_ citizens to more openly practice religion in the era of
_glasnost,_ this New Age-oriented revival is _encouraged_ -- and at
times _sponsored_ -- by the Soviet government.
Although in recent months U.S. mission agencies have been
allowed to ship as many Bibles as they want into Russia, and
although Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev pledged support in
allowing free practice of religion in the country during his recent
meeting with the pope, there is much evidence to suggest that _New
Age occultism_ is fast becoming the religion -- or pseudoscience --
of choice for the Russian people.
It is certainly true that in recent months many Western
evangelists have been in Russia proclaiming the gospel to
overflowing churches and halls. But it is also true that many
Western New Age gurus and "holy men" have been in the Soviet Union
proclaiming their message, and they too have often been successful
at attracting converts. Increasingly, Russians have been showing up
at Western New Age and occult fairs -- sometimes under the
sponsorship of the government.
Most observers say the revival is partly due to the spiritual
suppression imposed on the people since the 1917 Russian
Revolution; leaders now realize that they cannot extinguish the
personal quest for spiritual meaning.
Others say interest in the occult has been fanned by economics;
such New Age themes as ESP, reincarnation, psychic healing, and
UFOs sell papers and find a ready market in the Soviet citizenry.
As an August 1989 Associated Press dispatch noted, the Russians
have historically been taken by the occult and fantastic stories:
"Since the days of the wild-eyed monk Rasputin, hypnotist and
confidant at the court of the last czar, Russians have been
intrigued by the occult and fantastic, and stories about UFOs,
vanished planets and ESP have always had an eager audience."
Whatever the reasons, here are some of the facts surrounding
the Soviet psychic revival:
* The most popular man in the Soviet Union is not Gorbachev,
according to an October 12 front page story in the _Philadelphia
Inquirer._ He is Anatoly Mikhailovich Kashpirovsky, 50, a
"psychotherapist" who conducts healing sessions and seances for
audiences numbering in the millions on live Soviet television. In
the past 18 months, Kashpirovsky has become so well-known in Russia
that the government's foreign ministry office recently held a press
conference to tout his abilities before the world's media. On
October 11, 1989, the NBC Nightly News picked up the story and
featured the psychic healer on U.S. national television.
According to the _Inquirer,_ "Kashpirovsky has the nation in
thrall." When he appears on national TV, "Soviet citizens drop
everything. People halt work and leave dinner tables. The next
morning, his eerie talent is the talk of rush-hour subways." Under
the dark-haired man's "steely gaze and hypnotic voice, they say,
tumors shrink, scars disappear and surgery is performed [sometimes
live on national television] without anesthetic."
During the press conference, government officials treated
reporters to several film clippings of Kashpirovsky's sessions.
(Presently he does two regularly scheduled TV "seances" a month;
additional appearances, live or taped, are broadcast every week or
two.) In some of the clippings, people offered testimonials to his
power, saying their tumors shrank, scars and birthmarks faded, and
pains disappeared. The _Inquirer_ went on to say that Kashpirovsky
is close to "becoming a personality cult," as he received 20 bags
of mail -- about 40,000 letters and telegrams -- from Russians
during the preceding two weeks.
Kashpirovsky is careful to say his abilities are nonreligious.
* Russia's second-best-known psychic healer, Alan Chumak, is on
state-run television six days a week on a show called "120
Minutes." On this program the grey-haired mystic waves his hands on
camera to cure viewers of whatever ails them, according to the
previously mentioned Associated Press dispatch. The story went on
to say Soviets with heart disease "are requested to watch" his show
on Tuesdays. "On Fridays, Chumak will help viewers get rid of
allergies. People with stomach bugs should tune in on other days."
And if these people can't watch a show on their designated day,
they are instructed to just leave the set on, "and a jar of water,
juice or massage cream placed by the TV screen supposedly will be
'charged' by Chumak's gestures and can be used later for
treatment."
* The state, which has sponsored psychic research by the
military for decades, is more than willing to sponsor the occult in
other parts of Soviet society as well. Frequent articles on
occultic themes and UFO activity have even been appearing recently
in state-run newspapers like _Pravda,_ and also in the one-million
circulation daily newspaper _Socialist Industry,_ a vehicle of the
Communist Party's Central Committee. And James Oberg, writing in
the January 1990 _Omni_ magazine, said that in Moscow's Cosmos
Pavilion, the Soviet Union's "museum" of relics from the dawn of
Soviet space flight, one of the main and best attended exhibits is
concerned with psychic powers and aliens.
Oberg also noted that in the era of _glasnost,_ "a vigorous UFO
culture [which often associates itself with the New Age movement]
has blossomed across the USSR." According to an article in the
December 1989 _New Frontier_ magazine (which is one of the East
Coast's leading New Age magazines), "for the first time in history,
the Russian government authorized five scientists to attend a New
Age conference in the West." In that gathering (called "Dialogue
With the Universe"), which took place in October 1989 in Frankfort,
Germany, the Soviets shared information on alleged recent UFO
landings in Russia.
* From the West, various New Age organizations have been making
inroads into the Soviet Union for some time. One of the most
involved -- since 1979 -- has been the Esalen Institute, a human
potential group based in Big Sur, California. According to a recent
article in the _Los Angeles Times,_ the Institute, which was
founded in the 1960s, has moved beyond its earlier Soviet-American
Exchange Program to become the sponsor of a number of political and
scholarly programs that include scientific conferences and
educational exchanges with the Soviet Union.
Politically, Esalen has clearly seized upon the opportunities
created in the Soviet Union by Gorbachev's reforms to promote the
transformation of both Russian society and the world -- a new era
of unprecedented cooperation. "Gorbachev is clearly a
transformative leader and his reforms are changing the very fabric
of Soviet society," according to Esalen's 1988 "Director's Report
to the Board." Another paper issued by the Esalen Institute states
that the purpose of their Soviet program is to encourage "a broader
understanding of human relations and human potential" that can
eventually "improve international relations."
According to the 1990 Annual Directory Edition of the _New Age
Journal,_ other groups involved in New Age-oriented citizens
diplomacy programs with the Soviets are the Citizens Exchange
Council, the Earthstewards Network, the Institute of Noetic
Sciences, the Promoting Enduring Peace group, US/USSR Bridges for
Peace, and Youth Ambassadors of America. The Institute of Noetic
Sciences, founded by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, helps
underwrite some of Esalen's expenses for the Soviet exchange
program (according to the Institute's "sponsored projects program"
flier). It has offered a "bonus gift" for new members -- a book
titled _The Mind Race,_ which describes psychic advances in the
Soviet Union.
One prominent Western mystic who is a disciple of
Transcendental Meditation and is intensely involved with the
Soviets is Deepak Chopra. Author of three New Age books --
including the recent Bantam best seller, _Quantum Healing_ --
Chopra has recently been given the go-ahead to start several
Ayurvedic (ancient Indian) medicine centers in Russia.
In an interview published in the September/October _Starlite
Times_ (one of New York City's leading New Age magazines), Chopra
said he gave a presentation on Ayurveda and TM to the USSR's
Institute for Preventative Medicine, which led to another
presentation partially sponsored by the Academy of Sciences. Later,
Chopra said, the Russian health minister invited him to make still
another presentation -- and that ended with his signing a contract
to teach medicine in the Soviet Union.
"The most exciting thing for me is the idea of completely
influencing millions of people through Ayurveda in the USSR and the
Eastern block countries," Chopra stated in the article.
* All of these developments create difficulties for the fragile
but fast-growing church in Russia. The Russian Christian Radio
(RCR) organization of Estes Park, Colorado, reports that as a
result of the occultism in the Soviet Union, many Christians --
especially new converts -- are severely affected by New Age
thought. To combat this influence, the organization is trying to
translate Christian apologetic materials into the Russian language.
*Weapons Arrests and "Doomsday Talk" Shrouds Church Universal and
Triumphant*
Since early July, three high-ranking Church Universal and
Triumphant (CUT) members have been arrested on weapons offenses. In
each case, the members were attempting to stockpile weapons in
preparation for an anticipated nuclear holocaust.
One of those arrested was Edward Francis, the husband of sect
leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Francis was sentenced on December
15, 1989 to one month in jail and three months' house detention for
his role in a conspiracy to buy enough weapons and paramilitary
supplies to arm a 200-member church army.
Law officials say they broke up the plot on July 7 when Vernon
Hamilton, the former chief of the church's Cosmic Honor Guard
(i.e., its security), was arrested in Spokane, Washington after
purchasing weapons under a false name. He was apparently planning
to ship them to the sect's 33,000-acre encampment in Park County,
Montana. According to the December 10, 1989 _Sunday Oregonian,_
police found "about $28,000 in cash and gold Krugerrands, 15
military-style assault rifles, two pistols, and 120,000 rounds of
tracer and armor-piercing ammunition in [Hamilton's] pickup and a
storage garage. Seven of the rifles were .50-caliber semiautomatic
Barretts, which fire 6-inch cartridges that can penetrate light
armor." He was sentenced to three years' probation for using false
identification and fined $1,000. His weapons and money were
confiscated.
Later, on October 13, CUT staff member Frank Black was arrested
transporting two more Barrett semiautomatic weapons to Montana.
Authorities say the purchase was illegal because Black had given a
false address. Charges were later dropped against him, but his
weapons were confiscated.
Although Mrs. Prophet and CUT officials claim they didn't have
anything to do with the attempted weapons purchases, published
reports -- and statements by Francis -- make clear that it was Mrs.
Prophet's "revelations" of a coming nuclear war with the Soviet
Union that incited the attempted purchases. In recent months, many
sect members have been moving to the sect's compound in Paradise
Valley, Montana (which is near the North Entrance of Yellowstone
National Park), where they have been busily engaged in building
$300,000 bomb shelters and stockpiling large food supplies.
But in mid-November, the church succumbed to media pressure and
gave reporters a tour of one of the underground shelters. Ten of
them, capable of holding about 1,400 people, were nearing
completion, according to the November 19, 1989 _Seattle Times._
Mrs. Prophet, often referred to as "Guru Ma" by her estimated
150,000 followers, has had difficulty pinpointing the date of the
supposed apocalypse. According to Mrs. Prophet's doomsday scenario,
the U.S. will be victimized by an all-out Soviet nuclear attack,
followed by an invasion. The two dates she is said to have
associated with the event -- October 2, 1989 and December 31, 1989
-- have both failed.
According to published reports, Mrs. Prophet arrived at the
October 2 doomsday date through "El Morya," one of many "ascended
masters" (superhuman entities inhabiting a higher dimension) that
are said to speak through her. When that date came and went, Mrs.
Prophet said the prayers of sect members had postponed the event,
and December 31 was the new date. But she added an immediate
qualifier, according to the November 3 _Billings Gazette:_ "Prophet
emphasized she was not predicting war or any other catastrophe for
that date -- it was just a deadline for preparedness."
All the talk of weapons and doomsday has further galvanized
local residents against the sect; some have compared CUT's presence
in the area to the building of Jonestown in Guyana, or
Rajneeshpuram in Oregon. And recently the residents gained a new
ally in their nearly decade-long battle with the sect: Moira Lewis,
Prophet's 21-year-old daughter, who left CUT last year. Lewis has
begun to publicly denounce her mother as a cult leader and has
charged CUT with being a potentially dangerous organization that
exercises mind control. On September 12, she appeared on the "Oprah
Winfrey" show and debated her sister, Erin Prophet, 23, who has
become a CUT spokeswoman.
CUT bought the 12,000-acre Forbes Ranch from recently deceased
multimillionaire Malcolm Forbes in 1981, and in 1986 moved its
headquarters there from Malibu, California. Meanwhile the church
has purchased more land in Paradise Valley (see the Summer 1989
CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL for more details).
*Rajneesh Dies of Heart Failure*
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the self-proclaimed "rich man's guru"
who once tried to take over a town in Oregon before being deported
from the U.S. in 1985, died of a heart attack at age 58 in his
native India on January 19.
Rajneesh came to the U.S. in 1981 and, the following year,
established a commune and would-be city known as Rajneeshpurum near
rural Antelope, Oregon. The commune grew rapidly and became home to
about 4,000 of his followers. It was there that many scandalous
stories emerged about the sect and its practices. To many, Rajneesh
is best remembered for his collection of 93 personal Rolls Royces
he kept at the commune.
After pleading guilty to two counts of immigration fraud,
Rajneesh was deported and became an international pariah -- he was
rejected from settling in Asia, Europe, South America, and the
Caribbean. He resettled in Poona, India in 1986 with a smaller
number of his disciples -- new bizarre stories soon surfaced. In
1988 he changed his name to Gautama the Buddha, and in late 1989
again to Osho, or "enlightened one."
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End of document, CRJ0065A.TXT (original CRI file name),
"News Watch"
release A, April 20, 1994
R. Poll, CRI
(A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in
the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.)
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